I've been building websites with a friend for the last eight months or so. We've been building ASP pages using VBScript and an MS SQL Server database. Although the websites are all VBScript, I've been writing perl scripts for loading and dumping data, reverse engineering schemas, and some other data manipulation chores. My friend has been somewhat interested in perl but he has too much work to do at the moment to spend much time trying to learn it.

Recently, we had to enable imports and exports for a few of our tables. I talked him into letting me load perl on his server (I had been running my other scripts from my workstation) so I could do these with PerlScript. Perl is much better suited for manipulating CSV files than VBScript so I figured I could write a much better import routine with PerlScript than I ever could with VBScript. The routines I ended up writing make sure all of the required fields are there, allow for additional fields to be specified (they ignore fields that aren't in the database) and allow the fields to be in any order in the imported CSV file. I never would have been able to provide that much functionality with VBScript alone.

My friend saw what I had come up with and his interest in perl is a bit greater now. These websites are his business and he's very busy right now. I told him I would look for some tutorial sites that might get him started. I knew of one site called Perl in 20 pages but that is geared more towards someone with a C/Awk/Shell background than a lifetime Windows/VisualBasic user.

I'm looking for recommendations for perl tutorial type websites that are geared towards someone that is familiar with Visual Basic/VBScript. Book recommendations would also be appreciated. I can give him my copy of Programming Perl and I'll probably pick up Learning Perl. What other sites or books would you recommend for someone with a VB background?

This site is pretty darned good! Check out the homenode of Ovid he has an excellent CGI programming course. Look at the tutorials here and check out book reviews here as well. In short, stick around here a while and you will learn an amazing amount!

Here is a good book. The title is Professional Perl Programming by Peter Wainwright et al. The publisher is Wrox Press Ltd. I hope to write a book review on it(if I can ever finish reading it) comparing it to Programming Perl. I got my copy cheap on Amazon. Check the 'used books' link. There is a companion volume titled Professional Perl Development. There is a book review on PM on the latter.

I would also recommend "Perl in a Nutshell". Not as much for learning, but for having a good desktop reference for the "how do I do that?" questions that will come up. I find my *Nutshell have the most wear on the bindings.

Since we've breached the subject of O'Reilly (+/- leiy as needed, I can't ever remember) books let me recommend Safari. With the basic account you may have 10 titles (usually each book counts as a single "slot" on your 10 slot bookshelf) checked out per month -- each checkout lasts for a month, which means a month passes before you can free that slot -- and includes titles from O'Reilly (the URL reminded me ;), et al. Not only Perl titles but other useful titles are available, too.

On my Safari bookshelf currently are:

DNS & BIND CookBook

DNS & BIND 4th Ed

Java Cookbook (don't ask)

Linux in a Nutshell

Linux Security Cookbook

Linux server Hacks

MySQL Cookbook

Perl & LWP (good, but perldoc LWP and perldoc lwpcookare very informative and easy to read)

Perl Cookbook, 2nd Ed

Programming Perl, 3rd Ed

Dang... I like pre-cooked meals this month...

Anyway, if you're like me -- first, let me send you my condolences -- and you either read a book once and put it away or grab it periodically as a reference Safari is great.

Another option is to get a T-Mobile HotSpot account and set up shop at your local Borders Book Cafe. Then, when you need a reference, walk to the tech books area and find what you need all the while staying on-line. If you choose this second option, be sure to use my little CUFP script (Expresso Login) to make your life easier (if you make the script better, or make a better script, please share it with me!).